


Set sail

by nymphori



Series: meet me halfway [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, emotional proposal, proposal, tissues recommended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 03:32:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6178633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymphori/pseuds/nymphori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bokuto seems oddly keyed up about this date and Keiji has no idea why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Set sail

**Author's Note:**

  * For [THE_HERO](https://archiveofourown.org/users/THE_HERO/gifts).



The afternoon is when Keiji is first made aware that this planetarium date may be a bit more upscale than he is expecting it to be. 

It’s a planetarium, he’s been to them before when he was younger. He’s seen the night sky, largely invisible thanks to their inner city living, brought to life for him against a dome over his head and in a leather seat that he is pretty sure he fell asleep in sometime while he was being told about the positions of the zodiac. 

So he's been to one before; it’s not upmarket, it’s not overly fancy, and yet Bokuto is standing at the doorway to his apartment in a suit, with a tie, his hair is gelled to perfection with not a strand out of place even though he looks out of place himself. Shaking in the doorway, confidence lacking in a way that Keiji has rarely ever seen.

It might be a bad day, it might be that Bokuto has shown up two minutes late. 

It might be because Bokuto is in a suit and Keiji is wearing a faded shirt with ripped jeans that the shop attendant had assured him would be the perfect thing for a date to the planetarium. Apparently planetarium dates have changed with the times and are now a suit and tie affair. The next time Keiji heads to the shops he will have to tell them this so that they are also in the know. It’s only fair after all this time for Keiji to finally be able to deliver advice back to them.

Keiji invites Bokuto into his apartment, leaves him in the main room while he rushes over to his wardrobe. He hasn’t planned for this, hadn’t expected this. A suit and tie? Bokuto had said they would be going to eat afterwards but Keiji had thought that meant a normal dinner; thought that if they needed to dress up for dinner Bokuto would at least tell him. He doesn’t have a spare suit, not a date suit anyway. He has the suit his parents bought him for graduation and to wear to job seminars and interviews and well, he hasn’t worn it in a year, hasn’t looked at it in a year.

It still fits, and Keiji finds more relief in the fact that this means he hasn’t put on weight than the knowledge that he won’t have to look like a complete idiot on their date. His parents picked this out for him, they have seen him wear it, it has to be nice.

It does have a fake tie on it though which he doesn’t want Bokuto to see, and he remembers that it was something he had wanted to accomplish: tie a tie. A challenge for another time. He can’t go out to Bokuto now - who has seen him in a tie before - and ask him to do it up, it will mean admitting that someone else dresses him for his dates and it’s too embarrassing to admit that he needs this in order to impress Bokuto.

Although, it’s been long enough, Keiji probably doesn’t need to try so hard to impress him any more.

 

 

The planetarium is interesting, it's beautiful.

Made even more so by the suits that he and Bokuto are wearing compared to what looks like a playgroup who have also come in to see the show. Bokuto preens and puffs his chest when the children point at them, talking about their closthes, and Keiji has to wonder if maybe this was his plan all along. A Sunday, and the two of them walking around in suits, Bokuto is probably just in the mood to have attention on himself, and Keiji has just gone along for the ride, no questions asked.

Keiji’s still glad he changed though. He had been fond of the outfit he had started the afternoon in, but he would have felt self conscious next to a well dressed Bokuto in it. This is better.

Until one of the children mentions Keiji’s tie matching his eyes, wherein he hides his face in Bokuto’s shoulders, even with them shaking. From here he can only hear the gasp, and thinks that they must have noticed Bokuto’s eyes now instead. A much nicer discovery.

Golden, blazing, a mirror of the sun in the middle of the ceiling. Even though the show hasn’t started yet it gleams there at the centre of the sky. 

He pulls his head back to find Bokuto’s eyes on him, gleaming to show the centre of Keiji’s world.

When the lights dim down, an excited hush takes over. Whispers fill the room, and Keiji squeezes at Bokuto’s hand with his own. He’s excited too, but he knows better than to whisper. With the shape of the room the sound carries, and when the microphone finally turns on, it’s magnified momentarily until it evolves into silence.

The sun moves across the sky, and the stars take over everything.

Keiji is mesmerised. This is the sky he could be seeing, the one above them right now, the one that will be there tonight. It’s beautiful, the universe is beautiful and they are lucky enough to be a part of it.

Keiji wants to be a part of it, wants to go back to being a part of it. Wants to find a rooftop somewhere, right now; maybe he can climb up the fire escape of his own building and see if it makes it all the way up to the roof. It won’t be the same as this, the magic of being able to zoom in and delete the clouds; to show real things and real pictures, but it will be the magic of being there. Of lying down and lifting his hand up to the sky, holding onto the universe as it turns and twists and they tumble their way through it.

He misses that.

The show ends on a simple star, it’s nothing outstanding, not compared to everything they’ve just seen. Just one pale star in the entire sky of blazing colours, but Keiji likes it. It’s just one star in the universe, it doesn’t even have a real name, numbers and letters jumbled together, a position, but that’s all Keiji is in the world too. Something small in the world that blooms with life around him.

 

 

Wearing a suit makes no sense even as they sit to eat.

It’s a cafe. Their regular cafe.

The suits are a fashion statement that is working because eyes follow them everywhere.

Bokuto has all the attention that he could have wanted when he chose to dress up for the afternoon.

 

 

“Are we going to your place or mine?” Keiji asks, hand in hand walking down the street. He wants to get out of the suit, he wishes he hadn’t immediately rushed to dress up to match Bokuto, thought that the suit meant something. It has meant nothing, not so far as he has worked out yet anyway.

“Neither!” Bokuto cheers. Maybe there is reason for it then. “We’re going to our place!”

“Our place.” Keiji echoes. Not a question. A thought, a memory, excitement and anticipation building up. There’s only one place that they have ever called theirs. _Our place_. It takes root in his heart and he can feel it pumping through his body with every step. Every footfall bringing him closer, bringing them closer to this.

The ladder he hasn’t seen in years.

That squeaks and groans in all of the ways that he’s remembered.

Up one floor, up two floors, up three floors, to the roof. Which looks so much like the last time he was here that it could have been just yesterday that they were banned.

“I thought we weren’t allowed back up here?”

Bokuto smiles, a different smile, something he’s learned from his best friend. Mischievous, scheming. He holds a finger to his lips. “We’ll have to be quiet then.”

Keiji feels giddy all over again, at Bokuto saying that _he_ needs to be quiet, at the rooftop, for the night time, with a clear sky overhead and blankets and pillows and a basket strewn about in front of the fan to join the drinks that he and Bokuto have just picked up. 

He’s happy, he’s nostalgic, he’s overwhelmed, he throws his arms around Bokuto, and it’s expected. Bokuto catches him, pulls him in, tighter, closer, lifts him up and spins him around. “Did I surprise you?” He whispers against Keiji’s ear.

It’s warm, it tickles, and Keiji is glad to already have his feet off the floor, legs in Bokuto’s hold. The body he had first admired from this roof top, the person he had grown to love on this rooftop. Where they had first met, where they had first touched, where they had first kissed. The first of everything and Keiji always misses it, this place, everything that it has brought him, but it was today, tonight, visiting the planetarium and seeing the stars that had really made him crave coming back.

Bokuto was sneaky, had planned it well. Setting this up as if knowing that Keiji wanted to come back, had been longing for this place, tonight especially, of all nights.

“Did you know that I wanted to come back?” He asks.

“I always hope you do. I miss it too you know.”

Keiji pulls back his head from Bokuto’s shoulder, shifts in Bokuto’s hold. He wraps his arms around his neck and kisses him.

Long, slow, unhurried.

By the time Keiji opens his eyes again, his back is resting on the blanket, there are pillows beneath his head, and the sky has a thousand colours painted across it.

He gets carried away with Bokuto’s mouth on his. The familiarity doesn’t stop him from drowning in the feeling every single time. That this is Bokuto, the Bokuto who chose him, who has still chosen him, who still chooses Keiji every single day.

And now the sky is dark.

“Are we staying until the morning?” Keiji has to know.

Bokuto moves from his chest, sits up against the fan and drags Keiji into his lap. They can eat now, they can drink. “Of course we are. I wouldn’t ever bring you up here without plans to stay until the morning.” Bokuto says this, as if shocked that Keiji could ever think such a thing, but Keiji didn’t think they would ever be able to be here, in this place, again. He doesn’t know how long they have to keep this moment, this place, to themselves once more. “I want to see the sun come up with you.”

Keiji leans his weight back into him. “What about work?”

“It’s the compensation holiday.”

“What if you fall asleep?”

“Don’t let me.”

“What if I fall asleep?”

“Is that something that I need to be worried about?”

“No.” Keiji replies. “Never. Not here.”

Never here, not now. Not when it’s this special. 

 

 

“Did you know,” Bokuto says, not long after they have sat down on the ledge. Perching once more over the edge of everything. The sky is lighting up around them, and soon the sun will be in place to greet them too. “That this was the day that we met?”

“It’s not.” Keiji says. “Today’s a Monday. We met in the middle of the week.”

“Yeah, but the date is the same.” Keiji squeezes his hand, lets Bokuto know that he’s fine with hearing the story again. He’s heard it before, a thousand times, but he never grows tired of listening to it. “Four years ago, I jumped up and saw you sitting in this spot, in my spot.”

“In our spot.”

Bokuto smiles, softly, gently, warmth lighting up his face before the sun gets a chance to. “In our spot. And I wanted to be angry, because I always came up here to be alone, I never let anyone else come with me, and then there you were, sitting against the sky and I wanted to be angry, but instead it was just peaceful. It was better than any time I had been up here before, but then every morning that followed got better as well.” 

Bokuto’s hand drops from Keiji’s grasp, to settle around his waist, pulling him closer.

“And this morning is better than all of them too, better than all of them combined. The best morning, every morning with you gets better. Whether we make it outside to see the sky, or if we’re curled up inside with a movie, or if we’re just lying in bed, they always get better.”

Keiji squeezes at Bokuto’s thigh where his hand is rested. This is a different story, not the one Bokuto usually tells. It’s more, it’s so much more. He squeezes, and he squeezes, and Bokuto keeps going.

“I love it, I love you, I love being with you. I love watching this, the sun climbing up the sky and waking the city. I love watching the light climb up the wall, when I’m with you, when we’re together.”

Keiji might have stopped breathing, he doesn’t know. He can feel his heart racing beneath his skin, Bokuto’s body against his, and the words that make their way into his ears.

“I don’t want watching it together to be because you come over to my place or because we meet up somewhere. I want it to be because we’re together, all the time, all the days and nights and the mornings in between where we get to be together in body and mind, the part of the day that we always make sure to spend together. I want all of them with you, all of the rest of them.”

Bokuto shifts, and Keiji has to sit up.

“I know people usually have rings, but I know you don’t like them, so I thought about what you did like, what something was that we could share.”

He’s definitely stopped breathing, the rush of blood has calmed. All there is now is Bokuto.

“And we always share the sun; and you always say that you believed in the stars watching over us, and there is one.”

Bokuto tapers off, quiets, and Keiji speaks for the first time in what feels like forever.”

“There is one?”

“A star, there’s a star. It’s not named after us or anyone, but it’s close enough. It’s always in the sky over Tokyo, even though the stars move it’s always there, circling the city. There really is one watching over us. I wanted to name it, I couldn’t, but it’s close enough, and it’s always watching. Stars live for millions of years, billions of years, and so it will be there for the rest of our lives, watching over us. Whenever you cry, or when I get angry, when we fight, they’ll still be watching. I want to do that, live my life with you, for the stars to see the end of the story they were able to see begin.”

Bokuto looks down at him then, and Keiji can see the sun reflected back at him in those eyes. Bokuto, asking Keiji to share his life with him, the world and the sky and the stars that Keiji has always known would lead him back here, to this place, the roof as day breaks over the horizon, with Bokuto at his side. He had no idea that this was where they were leading him, this marker, only part way through their lives and Bokuto already knows how he wants to spend the rest of their days, their mornings.

Keiji does too, he’s always known, has always wanted to spend them with Bokuto. All of them, every single one.

“I don’t need anything else.” Keiji says. “Was there a question in there or did you just want an answer?”

Bokuto jumps, and Keiji worries briefly about the air that lies in front of them, but Bokuto swings around, jumps off the ledge, and swings Keiji around until he is settled between his legs.

Bokuto picks up his hands, and centres his gaze. The sun burning it’s way down into Keiji’s soul, setting his heart on fire, and his pulse racing again.

“Akaashi.” Keiji hums. “Keiji.” He pulls his knees in tight against Bokuto’s body. “You’re the only person that I want with me to chase away the dark. Life is full of challenges, but with you there to see in every morning there’s nothing that’s impossible. I want to spend the rest of my life making you as happy as you make me. With the stars watching over, the way they always have, the way they always will, I want to know if you would also like to spend the rest of your life with me catching sunrises and believing that nothing ever ends, it just begins anew.”

Keiji doesn’t know if he’s the one gripping too hard on Bokuto’s hands, or if it’s Bokuto who is squeezing down on his.

“I want to start a new chapter of my life with you, if you will have me?”

Keiji doesn’t speak, he just moves. He drops Bokuto’s hands - so it had been him squeezing - and presses his feet into the wall. He launches himself at Bokuto. He lands with a thud and a gasp, a rush of air that brushes over Keiji’s face, and Keiji chases it down to the source, breathes it in and latches on. It’s wet and salty and warm, and Bokuto’s lips move under his, before he pulls away.

“Of course I want you.”

Bokuto’s smile could replace the sun behind them, and still be enough to sustain the planet. Bokuto’s smile is what sustains him.

“Of course I want to.” He leans down again, wet and warm and salty, and Bokuto is still smiling and it’s a mess of teeth and tongues, but Keiji has never felt happier. “Every morning and every night and for all of the sunrises; I want to see them all together with you.”


End file.
